YOUTH, 18, CHARGED IN DEADLY ASSAULT ON LAUDERDALE STRIP

FORT LAUDERDALE -- A high school graduate preparing to join the U.S. Army was arrested on Friday and charged with brutally slaying Steve Martinez, whose skull was bashed with a tire iron on the beachfront Strip on Wednesday.

Martinez, 20, of North Miami, died on Thursday at Broward General Medical Center after his parents decided to take him off the life support system that had kept him alive since the attack in the 400 block of Seabreeze Boulevard.

Wyatt and three other white males apparently attacked Martinez at random because someone had dented their truck, police said.

"These guys didn't know him," Cefkin said.

Police had the names of two other suspects in the slaying, and "We expect to have them in custody very shortly," Cefkin said late on Friday night. "A father is bringing one of them in and an attorney has been in contact with the other."

A 14-year-old who was among the attackers apparently felt pressured to tell someone about the slaying after watching TV news reports that showed a sketch of Wyatt, Cefkin said.

"He had to talk to somebody else about it, and we learned about it," Cefkin said. "Then we were able to get to Wyatt."

Martinez worked in a North Miami supermarket, where his supervisor said he grew from a quiet 10th-grade bag boy to a popular young man who attended classes in mechanics in the morning and worked part time as a stock clerk.

But he was especially fond of his 1979 Mustang, which he tinkered with to keep it running and looking like new.

Martinez's car was parked outside a convenience store on the semi-deserted Strip about 3 a.m. on Wednesday when a young man slammed a baseball bat onto the hood of the car, police said.

Martinez was attacked and beaten when he got out of his car to confront the man with the bat and three companions.

Martinez's friends, who described him as quiet and meek, said he had been attracted to Fort Lauderdale this week by Spring Break.

Martinez told one friend on Tuesday afternoon that he might go to the Strip that night.

On Thursday, Martinez lay brain dead at the hospital, where his parents decided to turn off the support system, and to donate their son's organs for transplant.